Esker Foundation App

The Esker Foundation App

The Esker Foundation is the largest privately funded, non-commercial contemporary art gallery in Calgary. Using iBeacon technology, we created an app-based audio tour experience for their visitors that is meant to enrich their understanding of the art without being distracting.

DETAILS

After loading the app, gallery visitors are encouraged to put in their headphones, put their phones away, and explore the gallery. The app detects iBeacons strategically placed around featured art pieces and fades in audio that gives context to the piece as the visitor walks around. Additional interviews, photos, and behind-the-scenes content is included on the app but isn't the primary feature.

The app includes general visitor info, upcoming exhibition details, access to the gallery shop, and a feature for users to save their favorite pieces, creating their own personal art gallery. Our team also proposed a closed caption feature for those who are visually impaired—a problem often overlooked in galleries and museums around the world. This would roll out in a future phase.

The app was designed as a template to house the gallery's ongoing lineup of exhibitions, hence the placeholder content in the images below.